I’m building a remotely operated vehicle(ROV), suggestions needed.
Here the short of it, I wish to explore a old abandoned mine, but in the present condition, no one in his right mind would go in personally. I and 2 others wish to construct a small remote control vehicle to explore.
Basically we are thinking of a slow moving, either track drive or 4wd remote control car, a ‘web cam’ mounted on a 365 swivel or 2 web cams one forward and one pointed backwards (the ability of driving in reverse will be needed, as well as seeing in reverse) with a wireless connection to a laptop.
It would be driven by watching the picture on the laptop, as no direct visual of the vehicle will be possible.
This is the 1st generation as such a 2nd one might be redesigned to accommodate what we find as obstacles. For now basic navigation on fairly smooth terrain is the design parameters.
We don’t want to go hog wild, and prefer to make a cheap disposable ROV as it is very likely it may become stranded.
My job has to do w/ the visual systems. I want suggestions as to a wireless, battery operated web cam system which can be viewed on a laptop screen good enough to drive and view what is down there. Also what sort of range that can be expected in a iron ore mine shaft, and if using a repeater could be used to extend the range.
Suggestions of drive systems are also appreciated.
We are also considering a tether of some sorts, but the ability to have the ROV release the tether of it gets tangled.
The budget of the expendable ROV is set at $150, but could be raised if needed (this does not include parts that won’t be at risk of loss).
My guess is that navigating a ground-based remotely operated vehicle through an abandoned mine and bringing it out successfully is going to be quite challenging. Perhaps you should consider an airship. Using hydrogen rather than helium might be a good idea provided the missions are short (say, 2 hours or less): hydrogen is cheaper and substantially more buoyant (less dense), so you can carry a larger paload with the same envelope (probably mylar).
Another problem to consider is reliable communications. Standard radio links are likely to have a short range in a mine.
My friend used to be president of this club. He built remotely and self-operating vehicles. He now works on the CMU’s red team for the drapa grand challenge. Anyway, I bet if you contacted someone at this club they’d be able to give you some good info.
Ditto on that. A tethered connection is going to a lot reliable that sending radio waves through solid rock. It’s also easier for retrieval and supplying power. Spooling out a cable is easy, but spooling it back in is going to be a lot more challenging. Do plenty of practice in a parking lot before you descend into the deep. Practice steering along the white lines.
Ok I asked the kids if they wanted to explore but they wanted more then I budgeted, so I am back to a ROV.
The airship is interesting, and I have passed that suggestion along to the person working on the vehicle. This may be better for the next generation ROV.
As for a wired connection, it appears that I would need a cat-5 cable, or worse a USB cable, which isn’t really all that conducive to the ROV being tethered by this type of cable. it may be possible to have the ROV drag a wifi repeater in somewhat then drop it off.
Also this mine has a entrance, which I assume workers used to go to work, but also numerous shafts which may be 100 ft down. I am hoping to lower the ROV into this shafts to look around, any maybe navigate a bit. I assume that a wifi connection would work for this. At the very least I could lower a wifi bridge into the shaft to allow a strong signal to the ROV.
As for light, many web cams have a IR LED for some sort of night vision, will this be enough or do I need some other light source?